Day 369 - 370 June 24 - 25, 2023

Day 369 Saturday, June 24, 2023

Harbor East Marina Baltimore, MD to Delaware City, Delaware

6:30am start to our day.  Grey and overcast, we are hoping that the weather and waves improve over the last few days.  We are traveling with Call Me Curly and Awelon Y Mor.  Plans are to travel to Delaware City from Chesapeake Bay down the C&D Canal and to the Delaware River.   From there our next stop would be Cape May, but weather will dictate if we can travel on Delaware Bay.  Cape May sits right on the tip where the Atlantic waters and Delaware Bay meet.  The waters can be challenging there and many boaters have had to wait days in Delaware City for favorable seas.  Let’s hope not.

 

Awelon Y Mor

It takes almost an hour to get through the Baltimore Harbor to the Francis Scott Key Bridge.  We were warned by the dockmaster to be out of the harbor early; the harbor was closing for some event and boats wouldn’t be allowed to travel after 7:50.  We made it by 7:17, even with the 6mph speed limit.

Russ told us to look for the Francis Scott Key Memorial Buoy—we found it!

  

Once back on the Chesapeake we had to be vigilant for crab pots.  We passed Poole Island Bar Light and Aberdeen Proving Grounds (restricted area used for munitions practice). 

 

We reached the C&D Canal entrance at 12noon.  The tide was on our side – we were doing 10 knots, equivalent to 12mph! 

We reached Delaware City around 1pm.  The marina is on a canal off of the main waterway with a shallow and narrow entrance.  With directions from the dockmaster Charlie, all 3 boats made it without problem.  We headed to the fuel dock for a pump out while the others made it to their “slip”.  The slips are actually along one long dock.  Each boat pulls in, throws a bow line to the dock attendant who then swings your boat around to face out the way you came in.  I needed to be ready with the stern line from the opposite side so that he could pull us around.  They made it look easy.  All this maneuvering was important since the current and tides are significant and it would be difficult to get the boat off the dock when we left. 

Delaware City offers a captain’s meeting at 4pm daily to help boaters judge the weather and travel for the next day.  Charlie ran the well-attended meeting (including the 2 marina dogs); he had a power point presentation and confirmed that the next day would be good for travel and advised us what time to leave.

Foster, the local harbor host met everyone and generously answered all of our questions.  He recommended a restaurant and the “corn ball” appetizer.   Russ and Janet arrived (they only live 30 minutes away) and we all headed to dinner at Crabby Dick’s.  Doris and Neils, Jerry and I tried the corn balls.  Foster was right, they are delicious.

Janet graciously went shopping for our 3 boats.  Our ice maker has been replaced and we stocked up on tonic water.  Russ took the dead ice maker off our hands, promising to get it running again.

Day 370 Sunday, June 25, 2023

Delaware City to Cape May, New Jersey

Janet and Russ were off the hook.  They had offered to entertain us and taxi us around to stores and local sights if we got stuck due to weather but the forecast held and we headed out at 6:20am.  We were glad that our boat was facing out as there was quite a bit of current.  Some of the boaters had been worried about getting their boat off the dock; Charlie had a dockhand there early to help shove people off! 

We pulled out of the channel and passed the green buoy marker.  The osprey nest on top was occupied, momma guarding as we coasted by it in the shallow water.  

We were out of the Delaware City channel and into the Bay at 6:45am.  High tide was at 4:27.  We traveled with Call Me Curly, Awelon Y Mor, After Hours, Elysium and Pinnacle.  Another boat, Rush Hour, left at 5am.

We passed nuclear power plants.  It was very hazy, most likely due to the fires in Canada.  Sometimes you can smell the smoke. We were following Bob423 course but it was bringing us through lots of crab pots so we moved back into the main shipping channel.  Luckily we only had to deal with one freighter, Scorpion Confidence.  It had a significant bow wake.   We kept hearing this eerie noise and realized it was fog horns from the lighthouses.

 

We passed Ship John Shoal Lighthouse, Elbow of Cross Ledge Light, Cross Ledge Lighthouse ruins and Miah Maull Lighthouse.  Miah Maull’s fog horn seemed the loudest.

 

 

We reached Cape May Channel and boat traffic was very busy.  In addition to the car ferry that crosses Delaware River there was a lot of recreational boats and Sea Doos.

We had a very tense moment when the local tour boat decided to pass under the Cape May Bridge at the same time we did.  It felt like I could reach out and shake hands with the passengers.             It was a VERY tight squeeze.

Utche’s Marina is a bit rustic and congested with narrow fairways.  Our slip was next to a tug boat; it was a little awkward getting on and off the boat.